Frank Riggs: “one more time, let us see if we can get this right. The tax break inserted in the bill was at the request of a…”

“one more time, let us see if we can get this right. The tax break inserted in the bill was at the request of a Democratic Member of the other body. Listening to my colleagues this morning on the other side of the aisle reminds me of a saying I once heard, desperate people will demagog anything. You see the Democrats would like us to believe that our tax relief bill is taking money from the poor to give it to the rich. Let me ask my Democratic colleagues, do you think all senior citizens are rich? You must think so because that is one group of people who definitely benefit from our bill. We are repealing the unfair tax increase that you imposed on the backs of senior citizens in August 1993. You surely remember that. This is the tax increase that considers all seniors receiving Social Security benefits and making $34,000 or more a year wealthy. We are also lifting the Social Security earnings limitation so that seniors who want to work outside the home past the age of 65 are not unfairly penalized if they earn over $11,000 a year. Mr. Speaker, it is wrong to raise taxes on middle income seniors who live on fixed incomes and it is wrong to target working seniors. I ask my Democratic colleagues to help us in passing the tax relief bill.”